Republicans against the AARP
by Jerome Armstrong, Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 05:51:08 PM EST
2006 is likely to be a low-turnout election and one thing the Democrats need, is the Republicans pissing off those most likely to vote.
But lets think for a moment. Given that the same group hired by USA-Next, did the SwiftBoat crap, how do we want to approach this? Reading through the NYT's article, I get the same sense from the AARP that I got from the Kerry campaign in the early days of the SwiftBoat attacks-- writing it off:
Officials at AARP say that their organization has weathered attacks and allegations of partisanship over the years and that they were not overly concerned about the current barrage."I don't ever want to see someone attack us, but we haven't found they had a significant impact in the past," said David Certner, the group's director of federal affairs.
One USA Next official predicted that this time around, the campaign would be so aggressive that the White House might not to want to associate with it. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the White House doesn't want anything to do with a group that is attacking the AARP," the official said, adding, "We are not going to drag them into this mess."
Mr. Jarvis said the group's goal is to peel off one million members from AARP, by presenting itself as a conservative, free-market alternative. He says USA Next surveys show that more than 37 percent of AARP members call themselves Republicans.
"We are going to take them on in hand-to-hand combat," said Mr. Jarvis, who is biting in his remarks about AARP, calling the group "stodgy, overweight, bureaucratic and out of touch."
The stodgy-looking and overweight Jarvis just joined USA-Next in 2001, but it's got a sorid past that needs to be outed:Formerly known as the United Seniors Association, USA Next was founded in 1991 by Richard Viguerie, a Republican pioneer and mastermind of direct mailings, who raised millions of dollars from older Americans using solicitations that sent alarming messages about Social Security. In 1992, there were allegations that the group was used as a device to enrich other companies owned by Mr. Vigueri...We'll see if the AARP knows what it's doing over the next few months.Tags: Republicans (all tags)
-----------
myDD - skin
-----------
30 Comments